Conrad Black: A good day for Israel — with many more to come

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses supporters at his Likud Party headquarters in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on election night early on April 10, 2019. THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

Good times are coming for Israel. Since the narrow victory of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with the emergence of a strong and coherent opposition under a convincing leader, marks several milestones in Israel’s progress.

It is considered that Netanyahu’s victory in this week’s election, which prevails through the complicated Israeli electoral process while under a preliminary criminal charge, is truly a formidable achievement. Likewise, it is expected that next year he will become the first minister with more years of service in the country’s history, for 14 years. It should be noted that, in the Israeli elections, the composition of the Knesset (parliament) is totally proportional to the total vote; There are no circumscriptions.

Likewise, as it has been mentioned with this, several milestones are marked in the progress of Israel. In this way, it is important to note that the victory of Netanyahu, had a significant contribution from the US President Donald Trump, who moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and also recognized the annexation to Israel of the Golan Heights. In addition to this, this victory is backed by the emergence of a strong and coherent opposition under a convincing leader, the Blue and the White Party of General Benny Gantz.

Evaluation of the facts

It is necessary to bring up some important data. One of them is that this is the first time that the country has two parties that have a solid majority since the most stressed days of Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir on the right (Likud) and mainly Sephardim, and Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres on the moderate left.

Similarly, one could say that by evaluating what Israel has achieved in its 71-year history as an independent state. In this way it is good to remember that it began as a strip of desert, the refuge for a town of almost half of whose total population, after more than 5,000 years of distinctive existence. Likewise, Israel was the late homeland of a tragically and savagely reduced people and settled in a badly favored land. As is already well known, Israel has officially been at war throughout its history and, yet, this besieged, old, exhausted land, with no resources, except recently discovered oil and natural gas, and meticulously expanded agriculture, and the inexhaustible wit.

However, Israel has become the world leader in artificial intelligence and is at least equal to the United States in the advanced data processing.